Ray Icaza

Just think, 2 UM commits from Kissimmee at LB ..... Gavin Nix and Elijah Melendez, what a pair.

Thanks for your take as your reference to our inability to run the ball I explained why I thought the game was decided when he went out. It didn't help missing two OL including 6'7" - 300 lb. D1 tackle Marcus Ferrer who we will eventually get back on the field. Just read HC EP comments in our local paper this morning and Swint suffered the shoulder injury on his very first carry of the game although he tried to continue for a bit after that. I would beg to differ in your take of losing our PRINCIPAL RB as the Orlando Sentinel described him as the best back in our entire area and some think in the entire state. Watched the podcast by Lo Woods with Gavin Nix (IMG LB) when he made his commitment to UM with interest as he grew up and played for Kissimmee alongside Taevion Swint as a RB before switching to LB. Both he and his dad on that podcast without prompting claimed Taevion is the best back he ever played against including the ones currently at IMG. He is a weapon that our entire offense is designed around and if the shoe was on the other foot with LM losing Noah Grubbs from the start that would have been the headline if we won. Again, don't know the seriousness of the injury and yes we were slow to adjust what we needed to do on offense to move the ball. Don't know about the whole chemistry thing with his receivers, just remember your statement he could put up 7 TD's against any team in the state on any given night. My belief was he couldn't do that against us "ON ANY NIGHT"! Our defense isn't talked about like the team the Dreadnaughts have, but if they are as advertised and can run the ball with a few passes mixed in they will win. Just be prepared to play thru the holding that will not be called to protect Grubbs.

Just got home from the game which I know is a heartbreaker for our kids who went in believing they would win. Final score 24-7 congrats to Lake Mary. The outcome of the game was probably decided in the first quarter when Taevion ran left went up in the air trying to avoid a tackler and got tripped up landing awkwardly on his shoulder. Won't speculate on the nature of his injury, but he left the game to not return obviously putting us at a distinct disadvantage offensively. As I firmly believed, our defense played lights out and despite not having any offense for the rest of the half, they led 3-0. Darter, you are a good friend and Grubbs is a great player but my main point was regardless the circumstance this guy isn't getting 49 points against our defense. That prediction proved correct as he probably dinked and dunked his way to maybe 200 yards thru the air with virtually no production on the ground. They produced their best drive to start the second half going 80 yards to take a 10-0 lead. Later in the half they were able to keep drives alive with a questionable spot converting a short run on 4th down where our coaches demanded a measurement which the refs refused simply moving the chains and giving it to them. Then on a 3rd and long our DB Kyri Watson broke up a long pass attempt cleanly where he simply looked down the receiver and they flagged him for an unsportsmanlike conduct moving the ball into scoring position to take a 17-0 lead. The home field advantage also proved crucial as to give Grubbs time they held on virtually every pass play and never once got flagged for it or any other penalty the entire game until there were 2 minutes remaining in the game. Both teams score a TD during garbage time. Lakeland fans be prepared to be held as they won't call it on them, even when they are blatantly obvious. They have a good defense, but not great so if you are able to move the ball and from all I read your defense may be the best in the state you should win. If we would have had our main weapon on offense throughout the game, they may still have won but wouldn't have gotten more than 14 points by us moving the ball and limiting their touches. No offense led to too many possessions for them and as out defense tired, they were able to take a bit of advantage. Disappointed, but I don't believe anyone ever won a championship the second game of the season.

They do seem limited offensively as they are also not quite as big up front as in past years. They scooped and scored on a play where we should have gotten another TD after a first and goal from the 2; it would have made the score 28-0 plus we dropped a pass in the endzone which could have made it 35-0 and a running clock. After last night it won't get any easier as they face a loaded up First Academy team next week so they will likely be 0-3. Don't know if the pieces they are missing are due to injury or other reasons but it will make for a long season.

NP

Not an active participant in the prognostication of high school teams across the state especially at this early stage in the season, just happy we are playing against Lake Mary or we would not have a whiff to make this list. That said, we have the opportunity to be the reason to be on this list as an extremely small percentage of participants including yourself NoleBull gives us a chance to win. That is the reason I participate in this forum, to be the lone voice advocating for our team.

Agree with Darter’s opinion that he is quite a marketer. He likes getting credit for the great QB’s in our area, but I know he is also the trainer for the one that transferred into OHS last year with lots of hype and he ended up being a dud.

Read that Coach Perry knew they could effectively run it against Cardinal Gibbons and they did. Five TD’s on the ground. I think he also knows that recipe won’t fly against our defense so he will have a different game plan. I agree ball control will be critical and HC EP has said as much. We look forward to the opportunity Friday.

A win is a win but we will need to play better next week as I don’t think anyone will pick us against Lake Mary. We relish the role of underdog as we are used to folks writing us off.

I did meet George Robert’s stepdad and mom prior to kickoff. They informed me that George was part of that good senior class they lost but they have another son Jaylen that also plays RB and he was high on the new QB that transferred in. He felt that they finally gotten a real QB. We did sack him 3 times and never gave him much time to throw.

Local reporter for the Orlando Sentinel confirmed my estimate of yardage gained by Treasure Coast offense in article that just posted. 31 total yards for the entire game. Seems like a good nights work.

I agree with your assessment of Grubbs and we will need to find ways to pressure him, hit him, knock him down even if it isn't a sack from the edge. In addition, will need to play mistake free and control clock with our ground attack to limit his possessions. Will be missing the first few practices next week as I leave to West Palm at the crack of dawn tomorrow and don't return till Wednesday so should see what the defensive coaches have schemed up to accomplish this. Despite having their RB available, I think they will find it to be tough sledding on the ground if what we showed against Bishop Moore last week and TC this week is any indication.

Same to your Naughts, that is a tremendous win vs a Miami Central in their house. Lots of upsets tonight I thought.

21-7 Kowboys.

Late post as we had over a 2 hour game delay due to lightning in the area. Wet field wasn't kind to either team, but the game wasn't nearly as close as the final score. We scored two early TD's with a 45 yard run by Jeffrey Sinophat then about a 30 yarder by Swint. Think we may have gotten a bit complacent after that as they were unable to move the ball at all which gave us multiple opportunities. We finally got back on track and dropped a sure TD pass in the endzone just before half so score at halftime remained 14-0. We picked up the running attack midway thru the 3rd quarter driving down to their 2 yard line with a first and goal. Shot ourselves in the foot with a procedure penalty on Swint for 5 yards and then he turned around and fumbled on the next play along the sideline and they scooped and scored from 95 yards.........14-7. That seemed to give them a bit of life and after exchanging possessions they finally picked up their first first down of the entire game. Finally put together another long drive to punch in another score by Swint from 2 yards with 2 minutes left in the game for the final of 21-7. Outside of the aforementioned mistakes we played a relatively clean game penalty wise and turnover wise although our QB did try to force a pass into coverage that he should have tucked it and run. If my memory serves me correct being this late at night, I believe they only managed 1 first down the entire ball game and ended with probably around 50 yards on the ground and much less thru the air. It should have been a 28-0 game or even a 35-0 game if not for the dropped TD pass and the fumble at the goal line. Overall, great to pick up the win and gear up for a completely different type team next week. GO KOWBOYS!!

Looking forward to how our young secondary holds up against that passing attack of Lake Mary as we have them at their place next week. As good as our overall defense is, I don't see us giving up 49 points.

I still think a 2 hr. plus bus ride with everything else being equal favors the home team. Last year losing our key offensive weapon for the bulk of the year along with an inexperience, young, diminutive QB was already a recipe for disaster facing our killer schedule and that played out to be true. Multiple other key player injuries did not help. Hopefully, our young QB will most importantly be a better decision maker and values ball possession better this his junior year; he doesn't have to go out and win games, simply not lose them. Having to punt and play behind that defense is not necessarily bad. Whereas fumbles, INT's, sacks, negative plays on offense simply need to be eliminated as they spell disaster against the top teams. QB play will certainly be the key for our team's success if those lessons from last year have been learned. Early results (Spring and KOC games) indicate that decision making has improved as he split the snaps with a transfer and we seemed more efficient moving the ball with our own QB. First real game Friday will certainly be an early indicator of what we can do but time will tell.

How many baskets are you putting your eggs in when predicting 7A? As NoleBull himself has stated, "It's ALL a Crap Shoot" at this stage. For us, we get Treasure Coast Friday but will keep a close eye on the results of both the Lake Mary vs Cardinal Gibbons as we get the Rams in game 2 while also seeing really how good BTW is as they play a decent South Dade team who we get week 3. BTW is hailed as a national power by some due to a #80 ranking by MaxPreps, yet the same MaxPreps ranks Bishop Moore above BTW in the FL poll but not a sniff in the nationals. The consistency of these geniuses is laughable.

Not really big on preseason rankings and not that familiar with how good Lake Minneola was supposed to be in our region (6A-R2), but I suspect after losing their top RB, 3 very good starting offensive linemen, plus an additional 2 DL members that doesn't bode well for them. These players all "Transferred" to The First Academy. They didn't fair well the last week vs Land-O-Lakes and will have a tougher test this Friday at Manatee. Shall find out soon enough but have no argument on the other 4 you placed atop 6A.

Case in point is MaxPrep currently is showing OHS record at 0-1 as apparently Bishop Moore HS decided to post their supposed victory (21-20) over us at their place in the KOC. I have included a direct quote from our HC prior to the game to a sports reporter in our newspaper ...... it reads as follows. “For us, it’s basically a dress rehearsal for the regular season,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said, as his team will play at Bishop Moore in Orlando Friday. “If they elect to keep score, we’ll try to win, but we use kickoff games to get ready for every aspect of the regular season. I think at one point we were like 3-17 in spring and kickoff classic games and we made the playoffs in each of those years, so winning these exhibitions have never been a critical point for us.” I did attend this game and have made little mention due to this fact as well as the fact that they never had the scoreboard on; no score, no time, no qtrs., etc..... We played our 1's in the first half with the score at 13-0 Kowboys which should have been 17-0 had we not missed an extra point and barely missed a FG. Our stats showed their starting QB Borg Jorgensen throwing for only 50 yards against our 1's in the first half, but he and the other QB's lit up our backup secondary and JV's for over 200 yards in the second half when they scored all their points. We obviously wanted to look at personnel as we held out one of our best defenders in LB Elijah Melendez (Miami commit) during the first quarter for "Non-medical" reasons. We were also down 2 starting OL including D1 prospect Marcus Ferrer (6'7" -305) as well as rotating QB's equally as part of the competition to who starts. Our DL is extremely deep and although we played everyone, they couldn't run the ball as reflected in a total of 39 yards on the ground for the entire game. I assume their HC took great pride in this "WIN" which is laughable yet heralded by the Sentinel as a great comeback. Things are not always as they seem. Just my take.

As the title of an ole 60's song says........."SILENCE IS GOLDEN"!

A Doctor and a Poet to boot!!! Who can top that?

Local paper (Sentinel) report The First Academy ended up with upwards of 30 "Transfers" since last school year. I agree with you regarding Edgewater in the spring game they moved the ball pretty well, but never scored a point during the half against us. They did better in the half vs Deland with 14 points. More evidence that this Wild Wild West needs an open division.

Unfortunately, it has an outsized importance to China also and the geniuses running our country are asleep at the switch which is troubling. No attorney/client privilege with our friendship Darter so if those interested can't figure it out you are free to disclose as I am an American now but very proud of my country of birth. As I previously told you, my wife and I are also considering moving back there now that we have fulfilled some family commitments. If that happens, I will be happy to buy you a "Cerveza" to celebrate life.

I do remember you telling me that China was on your itinerary, just didn't remember exactly when. This old brain is turning to mush. Hopefully, I can return the favor and join you in Apopka if you are still here for our game vs your Darters.